Hi All - I brewed a True Brew Porter over 2 weeks ago. “Visible” fermentation lasted about 4 days. After that I saw no activity in the air lock but decided to leave it in the fermenter for a total of 2 weeks. After 2 weeks I took an FG reading and it was 1.02. Seeing as how the instructions said to expect an FG of 1.014, I decided to wait it out a few more days and took 3 more reading (each reading 1 day apart). All of the readings were 1.02. Convinced it was done fermenting I decided to bottle, especially because porters are known to come out a little higher in the end. Well, I opened one up after 3 days and of course it was a gusher. This happened with my first batch, but after the bottles had time to condition they properly carbed up. Even though, I still can’t help but feel like maybe I had a stuck fermentation on my hands and didn’t realize it. My main question is this - is 6 points off on the FG a big deal?? Could I potentially have exploding bottles on my hands??? Thanks!
With 2 weeks in the fermenter and a consistent gravity reading after that, I’d guess it was done. But I don’t know how to explain your gushers. Were the bottles cold when you opened them? How much priming sugar did you use?
Hi Denny - thanks for the reply. The beers were warm and I used all the sugar that came with the kit. So I don’t think it was a case of too much sugar.
Try chilling one. CO2 comes out of solution much more readily in warm liquids than cold. If you chill them, you may find you don’t have gushers.
I’ll give that a shot. Thanks again!
Try measuring your gravity from a bottle. If your gravity dropped below 1.02, then your fermentation may have been stuck and the primer got it going again. Just a thought…
Just wanted to update everyone on this Porter. It turned out great! Nice big head, great aroma, fantastic flavor. The few extra points on the FG didn’t really seem to matter. 4 more weeks till my English Brown Ale is ready!